Page 1678 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
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Mr Berry failed to do. In the first 12 months that this man was Minister for Health the number of days lost through industrial disputes was substantially less than in the previous Labor Government's six months of office.
Mr Wood: Is he a good Minister?
MR DUBY: Here is a man who did nothing! That record has been maintained. He is an excellent Minister. Will you let me finish? Look at the other decisions that Mr Humphries has taken. Because of the hard work he has done and the work he is involved in, there has been a massive restructuring of cleaning and food services in the Royal Canberra Hospital system. Already quite a number of the workers have been offered voluntary redundancy packages - I emphasise the word "voluntary" - and have accepted them. I know what they will say when they go home with their big cheques. They will say, "Thank you, Mr Humphries, because you are the man who organised a proper standard of living for me".
This is supposedly the Minister who did not do anything. This is the man who you, Bill Wood, said did not do anything. Here is the man who has reshaped the hospital system. It is probably the most massive reshaping and restructuring process that this Government, or any government in Canberra, has taken on for 25 years. This is the man who has done nothing! This is the man who has dragged the system into crisis! What a load of codswallop!
Under this Minister we now have more hospital beds in the ACT than we ever had when Mr Berry was Minister. That is indisputable. We have more hospital beds in the ACT right now than whenever that man was in power. We have a man who will provide the ACT with a hospice. We have a man who is going to provide the ACT with a birthing centre. Where are Labor's calls for all these things? These are all supposedly good social needs. Where is the pat on the back? This is the Minister who is being censured. This Minister is providing you with a hospice, a birthing centre and child-care facilities at the ACT public hospitals. This is the fellow who has done nothing!
What about the convalescent facilities? What about the improved facilities for the aged members of this society?
Mr Wood: Where?
MR DUBY: I am telling you now; this man is in the process of doing that. This is the man who you say is doing nothing. Mental health crisis services are another example. This Minister has actually achieved something. Now, look at the sorry record that we have of when Mr Berry was in the position. What Mr Berry did, of course, was sit up in the office and look out the window at the car park. That was about the size of it.
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